citizen Evangelist

I am so sick of companies and marketeers focused on achieving customer satisfaction!

This is absolutely the wrong focus: this is the pursuit of mediocrity.

mediocrity - WordNet®
noun
1. ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding [syn: averageness]
2. a person of second-rate ability or value; “a team of aging second-raters”; “shone among the mediocrities who surrounded him” [syn: second-rater]

In today’s market, satisfaction does not guarantee a returning customer, it does not offer you assurance of word of mouth, and it doesn’t prevent that customer from telling others about poor experiences associated with your company or product.

Satisfaction is directly tied to the difference between expectations and experience. I can be satisfied with poor service when that is what I expect (and believe me, I expect poor service these days).

I can be unsatisfied when I have high expectations which are net me.  Rarely does this modify my behavior.  Instead, I typically adjust my expectations.

As a producer of goods or services, there are two dimensions that I can use to change customer satisfaction:

a) I can work hard to lower the expectations of my customers
b) I can work hard to improve the experiences of my customers

Further, when its time to report on these results… how should I determine how I’m doing? The most common practice is to average the results. It is very easy to miss out on important details using this method. For example:

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Ben McConnel Announced today the formation of the Society for Word of Mouth. I was so excited to see the formation of a group that is focused on the right aspects of Word of Mouth that I was compelled to jump into the fray:

View my page on Society for Word of Mouth

So many of the groups that I’ve come across are looking short-cuts and and artificial means to get awareness of a product or service. At the end of the day, these programs may get buzz and exposure, and that may create certain short-term benefits to the organizations who leverage these strategies, but not with out consequences. The holy grail in any strategy is providing real value to a real person… and doing so in a way that so uniquely meets their specific needs that they can’t help but to share those experiences with others.This is not easy.

This is not accomplished over night.

But, this is the most valuable achievement that can be made. I’m looking forward to participating in this group of like minded individuals.

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My company: Whisperlabs offers a hosted software which makes it easy for customers and prospects to submit product and feature ideas and then vote which are the best ideas. The primary benefit (other than making this process extremely easy to manage) is that it allows companies to see what they can focus their efforts on while managing customer expectations.

In the process of previewing the functionality, I’ve had a number of conversations where the principle point of concern comes down to trust: Is safe to provide transparency into development priorities and invite participation in voting on the priorities?

I can’t help but pose this question:

If you can’t trust to your customers, how can you expect your customers to trust you?

According to Merriam Webster’s online, trust evolved from my Scandinavian forefathers and essentially means “one in which confidence is placed.” Granted, there are a number of potential definitions which can be used, however, wikipedia does a decent job at expanding on this concept in their description of trust as a social science. The entry stars with the following:

Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises.

It later continues with the following:

trust is essential as Social institutions (governments), economies, and communities require trust to function. Therefore trust and altruism are areas of study for economists, although these concepts go beyond strict rational economics.

Trust is essential for companies and customers to function. As a consumer of a product, I must trust that the maker of this product will not harm me. I must trust that the product lives up to the marketing claims that were made (at least, within a degree of expectation). If my trust falters, I will cease to use the product.

Additionally, I’ll go as far as saying that when it is obvious that I am not trusted as a customer, then my trust in the company starts to falter. When my trust starts to falter, it casts a halo (or in this case horns) around all of my other perceptions of that company and its products.

John Todor makes some decent points here:

Most CEOs are not viewed as trustworthy because customers suspect a one-sided agenda. Enron and other companies have not helped change this perception. Peers, on the hand, are peers or friends because there is in fact a demonstrated relationship. One reason they are perceived to be trustworthy is the earned trust reflected in the relationship.

I would go one step more and say that most Companies are not viewed as trustworthy because of this one-sided agenda. This one-sided agenda all melts away when those same customers are asked for their ideas, their insights, and their participation. No longer is the company some faceless enigma with an agenda, it becomes a distributed team working together on a common goal: making improvements.

Pay it forward… extend trust to your customers. They are the people who pay your salary and make your job possible. With as you build trust with them, you’ll see their loyalty and your profitability improve.

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What is the value of an idea?

Some might say that ideas aren’t worth much. In fact, there are many different people who feel the same way. Even Thomas Edison was quoted as saying: “The value of an idea is in using it.”

I think most people only consider the value of ideas when:

1. They feel ownership of the idea
2. The idea represents something they would find useful

The irony with most companies is that most of the focus is only around those ideas that are generated within the company. In those cases, yes… I too agree that ideas are worthless unless executed.

But companies need to be mindful that there is a segment of ideas that has significant value. The value could be either positive or negative, and the risks associated with ignoring these ideas can be dramatic. Do you know what ideas I’m referring to?

Customer generated ideas

Customer generated ideas are typically incremental improvements or extensions to existing products or services. These ideas are rarely ground breaking or disruptive (for example: a user of a stove would not suggest the creation of a microwave oven and the owners of horses would not have suggested the introduction of an automobile). Because these ideas are not generated within the company, many organizations and individuals cast these ideas aside with a “not built here” mentality. Other organizations willingly collect these ideas and even act upon them to deliver incremental improvements. By far, the biggest problem companies face is the fact that there is not an effective method for the company to:

• Collect these ideas in a method that is easy for the customer to participate
• Record who suggested the idea
• Easily get feedback from the stakeholders on the value of the idea
• Communicate to those stakeholders:
  • The popularity of the idea
  • The stakeholders who support the idea
  • The priority of the idea
  • The status associated with action on the idea

Building customer engagement is difficult at best. When your customers feel strongly enough to share their ideas on how to improve your product or service, you have an opportunity to engage that customer and deepen that relationship. If you make it difficult to receive that idea, fail to acknowledge that you’ve received that idea, fail to consider that idea, and fail to communicate status to that customer you’ve given that customer a valid reason to seek a relationship with another vendor.

So, the next time a customer shares a product or feature idea with you, consider this: is the real value to your company in the idea? Or is the real value in how you interact with the customer?

My opinion: treat the customer like they are important & then determine how to act on the idea. The value still comes from how you act, but make certain that you don’t set yourself up to lose the customer in the process.

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I had a great conversation with a former coworker about the challenges faced since we went our separate ways. I couldn’t help but think about how the things we discussed were so similar to every situation that I’ve ever faced as a product manager.

Internal Politics vs. Customer Priorities

As a product manager, when I was faced with the task of determining what we should do for our next release, the core challenge always came down to selecting the best enhancements &/or new products that would help drive market adoption, drive increase value (revenue) and drive reduced costs. At face level, this seems to be an easy task. In truth, this process is much more an artform than a science. The challenge faced by most product managers is the validity of the “truth” used in making decisions.

When the CEO or the executive management team make assertions that the number one priority for the company is to do something, it is often difficult to refute. Further, doing so can be a career limiting move if you don’t have market facts to back yourself up with.

When the VP of Sales or any respected member of the sales team claims that a particular feature which is lacking would generate a higher close rate and millions of dollars in additional revenue, it is a challenge to hold a different opinion.

When the executive in charge of customer loyalty and customer experience points to user flows or the absence of features and boldly states that changes will lead to reductions in customer attrition or increases in use and revenue, any dedicated product managers will want to deliver solutions that improve customer revenue and longevity.

When all three of these executives are demanding different things and the development organization only has capacity to implement a portion of one thing, what is the correct answer? Should you side with the CEO? Do you act on the advice of Sales? Perhaps you focus on the areas identified by the stakeholder responsible for customer loyalty & customer experience?

The unfortunate truth is that none of these individuals can absolutely know the right answer. The right answer can only be determined in hindsight — after the decision is made, the development team executes, and the organization pushes the new release to production. Even then, the product must be used and opinions made by the intended beneficiary of the enhancement before any true measure of the ROI can be made.

What makes this even more challenging is the fact that not everyone on the team has the same objectives. What if the sole objective of the CEO is to earn short-term reputation points with the board of directors? Or, perhaps she is looking to get the incremental valuation bump based upon early news of the release? What is the motivation behind the message from Sales is closing a very specific deal which will help him to get his commission or save his job? What if the reason that your seeing customer attrition has nothing to do with specific features and the real reason is due to poor customer support?

Seth Godin posted some thoughts on who the “Boss” actually is just a few days ago which helps to keep things in perspective. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who on the team thinks they are right. What matters is whether the decisions made add new customers, keep current customers longer, drive up revenues, or decrease the costs of servicing those customers. The “boss” will always let you know how you’re doing in a measure called revenue from which you can qualify your success using another measure called profit. Make the right investments in the right way, profit goes up. Make a mistake… and well… that’s another discussion.

So… who is driving your priorities?

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